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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Andes Mint Chocolate Cake with Ganache

I am very excited to share this Andes Mint Chocolate Cake with you today!
It is SO delicious!

My daughter even declared this one of her top 5 favorite cakes!
That is pretty impressive, considering how many cakes I have made.

Moist chocolate cake full of chopped Andes mints,

layered with mint buttercream frosting

and covered with chocolate ganache.

Oh, YEAH!!!

Andes Mint Chocolate Cake

by Bird On A Cake

Ingredients

Andes Mint Chocolate Cake

1 cup boiling water

2 cups granulated sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped Andes Mints

Mint Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

6 cups confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

green food coloring

1/2 cup milk (may use less)

Chocolate Ganache

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Andes Mint Chocolate Cake

Heat
oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottoms of three 8 inch cake pans with
wax paper and grease the sides. Bring a small saucepan of water to a
boil and keep it simmering while you mix the other ingredients.

In
a large mixing bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking
soda, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs, sour cream, oil and vanilla.
Beat with electric mixer until combined.

Add 1
cup of the boiling water and carefully stir until it is mixed in. Beat
for 1 1/2 minutes with mixer. Place the chopped Andes Mints in a ziploc
bag with a tablespoon of flour. Shake until the Andes Mints are coated,
then fold them into the batter. Pour the batter into prepared pans. Bake
for 20-23 minutes (until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean).

Mint Buttercream Frosting

In
a large bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar a few
cups at a time and mix well. Mix in vanilla, peppermint and food
coloring. Gradually add milk until you reach the desired consistency.
Keep covered.

Chocolate Ganache

Place
the chocolate chips in a small metal bowl. Heat cream over medium heat.
Watch it closely and immediately remove from heat when it starts to
boil. Pour over chocolate chips. Let sit for 1 or 2 minutes, then slowly
stir the mixture. Continue to stir until all the chips have completely
melted. Stir in the vanilla.

Allow the ganache
to cool and thicken before you use it. Let it sit at room temperature
for a couple hours, or put in the refrigerator if you want to speed
things up. Start pouring the ganache over the center of your cake, and
slowly move outward in circles. Cover unused portion and store
refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

My daughter will thank you! :-) She's an adult but has always loved Andie's mints. This is a gorgeous cake...as usual. I know I'm always asking you questions, but how did you do the "almost" ridges on the sides?

Absolute PERFECTION!!!! Just gorgeous!!! Will have to give this one a try for sure! Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing this yummy recipe at the Tuesday To Do Party!Smiles!Jamiwww.blackberryvine.blogspot.com

I'm making this for Christmas, but I was too scared to try my first layer cake when my in-laws are going to be here. So, I'm just doing it as a cake in a pan and it is wonderful! Thank you for sharing!

I made this cake yesterday for my son's 10th birthday. It is simply divine! I have a few quick questions I am hoping you can answer: if I were to make the cake without the Andes mints, does the water still need to be boiling? Was the water supposed to be boiling to somewhat melt the candies? Secondly, does this cake batter lend itself to cupcakes?

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! The boiling water is not to melt the Andes mints, it actually brings out the flavor of the cocoa powder in the cake. Yes, it still needs to be boiling! I have made cupcakes with this recipe and they came out beautifully. You just need to shorten the bake time, probably 15-18 minutes.

Hiya, I made this cake. It is uber pretty... I love the chocolate cake, it's moist, dark, exactly what I've been looking for. I've been on the hunt for Chili's molten lava cake consistency and I think this is it.

The only thing that I'm not sure is that the mint flavour is really dominant. Is that how it's supposed to be? or should it be just a little hint. I'm sort of shooting in the dark here coz can't find Andes. I doubt it's availabe in Dubai... I found another type though and just did my best guestimate.

I've been baking for awhile now, but I haven't really ventured out of my comfort zone. I normally stick to what I like to eat. Mint and chocolate is a pretty daring flavour for me but I just had to take the plunge... your cake is so darn beautiful, I couldn't resist :)

Nina, I love that you are trying something new...good for you!! I used cocoa powder from my local grocery store (not dutch processed). The mint flavor is strong in the buttercream frosting, but should be a good blend of chocolate/mint in the cake. The ganache adds some more chocolate flavor to help balance it all out. I think the flavor is just right, but they may be personal preference!

Hi- I made your cake today and I was wondering if I could get a few tips on where I might have went wrong? I only had enough batter for two layers and they are not as thick as the ones in your picture. I followed the recipe exactly- but my pans were 9 inch. Did that make the difference? I also found that the Andes mints sank to the bottom and stuck to the pan (I greased and floured them) and my mint frosting is lumpier than in the picture shown. Thanks for your help and the recipe!

Thanks for your questions, Stephanie! Using 9 inch pans will make a difference. It will only make 2 layers, and your cake will be shorter and wider. The Andes mints do tend to sink to the bottom, so lining the bottom of your pans with wax paper could help it not to stick. For the frosting, you could sift the powdered sugar before mixing to get rid of any lumps. I hope this helps! :0)

I made this cake for a dinner party this weekend and it was a huge success! I did have a bit of a problem though. Though I greased and floured the pan I had quite a bit of difficulty getting the cake out of the pan. Perhaps I let it cool too long. I even made a second batch and used foil on two of my pans and parchment on one of the pans. That certainly was better but the batter is so moist that I still had some difficulty. Any suggestions. The cake was fabulous and now I have three (not very nice looking but very wonderful tasting) layers in my freezer to use in another cake. Or perhaps I'll mix them into some dark chocolate pudding for a different kind of dessert. Thanks for this recipe.

I have spent hours looking for the perfect cake to make a friend for her birthday, and this is it! After reading your blog and all of the comments I googled how to make the frostings ridges that you accomplished on the sides of the cake. I couldn't figure it out. How did you make the ridges look so perfect? :) Thanks!

Hello my name is Elizabeth and I work for a small library in Wyoming. We are currently putting together a recipie book to celebrate ten years of our annual Death By Chocolate Fundraiser. I'm collecting pictures to use on the dividers in the book, and I fell in love with the picture of your Andes Mint Chocolate Cake with Ganache. If you would be interested in talking to me about what we could do to use your photo, or if you have any questions, please email me at evoss@uintalibrary.org. Thank you for your time.

I couldn't find the andes mint and ended up using 1 bag of ghirardelli chocolate mint squares. They worked wonderfully. But since they have a soft mint center, I just used one whole square on the top for decoration instead of chopping them.

I have the same problem as Penny. I LOVE Andes Mints unfortunately you can't find them in Europe and trust me I've looked! :-) They do, however, carry After Eights. Any thoughts on how that might work out? My mother-in-law loves mint and I would love to make this for her 70th birthday this Saturday, August 25th so any advice would be greatly appreciated! Love your blog by the way!!

My cake stuck a bit too, but not so much that it was a real problem. I'm making another tonight and I'll use parchment paper instead this time. But the cake is SO GOOD! It's gotten rave reviews from everyone. Mine looked very much like the picture:

I would love for you to link this up at my Flaunt It Friday link party. I also have a series going on right now - "25 Pinterest Projects Til Christmas". I am your newest follower and I hope you will follow me back so that we can continue to share ideas! :http://www.blissfulbucketlist.com/2012/11/flaunt-it-friday-23-25-days-kick-off.html

I made this cake today and it stuck really bad to the wax paper in the bottom. The cake would barely stay together and looks terrible but taste great. I did put the wax paper in the bottom and grease the pans but still stuck. Any hints????? What decorating comb did you use for the sides and how did you get them so smooth?

Did you coat the chopped Andes mints with flour before you put them in the batter? That helps them not sink to the bottom. The link to the decorating comb is in the post...just click on the words "cake decorating comb"!

Hey guys, quick question!Im a bit new to baking and i just want to confirm some things. When the recipe need sugar, does that mean white sugar? And if it says flour, does that mean self raising? Thanks

I made this cake this morning...it smells awesome! However, I too had some difficulty with it.

I have professionally made cakes for 6 years and followed this one to a T as well. I found I had to bake more like 35 minutes instead of the 20-23 minutes in the directions. Also, I used the wax paper and it stuck horribly. As I peeled it off, a lot of the cake came off with it. Not sure why this is an issue with this particular cake, but I'm hoping that it tastes better than it looks (the way I made it!)

My husbands birthday is on St. Patricks day, so while searching for a tasty looking and different cake to make I came across this one! I currently have 3 layers just out of the oven cooling off ( we are celebrating the Bday tomorrow ).

My only question is, when I layer the cake do I need to cut off the tops to make the layers flat when I go to stack them? Or just push them down on to the frosting in between!? Or do I flip them over and use the bottoms as the tops, and even then...oh goodness!! Haha I've never done a layered cake ever!!!

Thnak you for this original cake recipe! So much better sounding ( and smelling :-) ) then just plain ole vanilla or chocolate!!

I made this cake tonight and took it to my husband at work. The only problem I had with the cake was when I was getting them out of the pan it was a little difficult. I think the problem was that the Andes mint pieces went to the bottom of the pan and made it stick a little. My husband and his co-workers loved it, although my husband said he would like the chocolate ganache to be sweeter. But I don't always go by what he says because he loves really sweet desserts.

I made this for my birthday today. I used a tablespoon of flour and coated the candy pieces but the candy still fell through the thin batter to the bottom of the pans. I'm kind of glad they did though because the cake was perfect with the chocolate cake, mint frosting and chocolate ganache. I didn't use all of the frosting (I only made a 2 layer cake) or all of the ganache (like you said I wouldn't). Thanks for this recipe idea! It was delicious! I can't wait to have a second piece once the kids go to bed ;)

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I should have read all of the comments before proceeding. I discovered I was out of parchment paper, yet I proceeded forth thinking grease and flour ought to do the trick. The cake absolutely refused to release :( So I didn't bother with the effort of the frosting and ganache, and just ate the cake in chunks. The cake by itself is delicious! A nice, soft, chocolatey cake with just a hint of mint. Perfect.

The cake itself was so delicious it won't be long before I try it again -- with parchment paper :)

Made this cake and it was awesome! Switched out the Andes mints for York Peppermint Mini-Patties and was amazing. They still sank to the bottom of the cake and the parchment paper still stuck a bit but was great aside from that. Neither issue was a big deal and the layer of half melted Yorks between the layers was actually quite nice. If you haven't tried this cake with York's- give it a whirl. Betting you'll like the results!

So I actually just borrowed your icing and ganache recipes and decorating style and found the icing to be a bit of a departure from the buttercream I usually use, it ended up a bit grainy and almost wet, plus the 6 cups of icing sugar seems to be a bit excessive. It seems that your icing gets most of it's body from the sugar instead of from being folded into a whipped heavy cream like most buttercream recipes I've used. As a result I couldn't use my icing comb as the ridges just slid down the cake as they were very heavy. Other than that the icing tasted pretty good and the ganache was good.

I tried using both the parchment paper and shortening with flour techniques. I would recommend using shortening and flour. Make sure you make a thick coating on the pan. I also used a spring form pan but even off the bottom piece the cake came off. I did need to use a butter knife to loosen it a little bit but it come off in perfect shape. The cake did come out shorter than I thought it would, I would maybe try doubling the cake recipe.

Just made this yesterday for my bday cake! Absolutely delicious, but super super rich. I think next time I might omit the pieces of andes mint in the cake itself. I followed the recipe to a "T" and had no issues with the cake sticking to the pan. I peeled the parchment paper off slowly and it came off without a hitch. The frosting was delicious. The frosting did sag a bit for me, but I think its just cause it was so warm in my kitchen. I should have chilled it for just a bit to help it solidify and hold its shape. Amazing cake, thanks for sharing :)

Followed instructions to a T and the cake turned out very nice, but the batter is so thin that even the four didn't keep a great of the candies from sinking to the bottom. I have a couple of other recipes that call for hot water, not boiling, so will try again with hot water as opposed to boiling. Not disappointed in the outcome, the cake turned out beautiful and very tasty. JW

I'm going to make this cake for some work birthdays this month, and I had a question about the buttercream. Your recipe calls for milk, but I was wondering if I could use the heavy cream instead. Is there some particular reason why this recipe calls for milk, and using cream would be disastrous? Just wanted to check before I totally ruined it or something :) Thanks!

This cake is d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s! I've made it twice now for two birthdays and everyone has loved it. They ask me for the recipe (I just direct them to your site) and they are always amazed that it's made with real Andes Mint. :] Thank you so much!

I made this cake for my 9yo's birthday. The cake and frosting were good. Only needed 1/4 cup of milk to do the frosting. The ganache was a disaster! It was like runny chocolate milk and literally pooled all over the counter and onto the floor. I remade this into cupcakes and skipped the ganache. What did i do wrong? i followed the recipe exactly!

I just made this for my son's 9th birthday as he requested a mint chocolate chip cake. When I did a google search, your recipe caught my eye. It came out perfectly! Such a hit. All I had were two 9" round pans, so I made the recipe twice, dividing the batter between the two pans each time. My family was able to sample the extra layer and it was amazing! Thank you. I love your website and hope to try more cakes!

Robin, what do think about adding the Andes pieces to the icing between each layer instead of in the batter? This might eliminate the sticking problem. If we replace the vanilla extract with mint in the batter u will still have the chocolate mint taste. And if the Andes on the icing between each layer is to minty, reduce the mint extract in the icing. What do you think?

Hi your recipe looks fantastilicious (fantastically delicious) I want to make this for my best friend's birthday, and I would like to cut them into a number shape cake, can I do so? If yes, should I do so before I spread the cream and layer up the cake or after?

I made this for my mom's birthday last year. It was super delicious. The only problem I had was with the ganache being too thin but it was still amazingly tasty. My mother thanks you for the wonderful recipe and has requested this for every birthday from now on.